India, March 20 -- While the Supreme Court of India recently rapped telecom companies for self-assessing their outstanding telecom dues, the top court is still to hear the Department of Telecommunication's (DOT) plea to seek 20 years' time for payment of AGR dues. DoT is hopeful the apex court will soften its stance and India will remain a three player market if telcos receive the said time to pay the dues at a reduced interest rate of 8 percent.

Mobile operators had recently done a self-assessment of the outstanding AGR dues and had claimed that it was lesser than the figures proposed by the government. This move, however, was not received kindly by the court, which said that the actions by telecom operators were a clear violation of it...